


A Matter of Opinion

by Nevanna



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-12
Updated: 2015-07-12
Packaged: 2018-04-09 00:37:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4327143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nevanna/pseuds/Nevanna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world's perception of the Winter Soldier is something that Bucky and Steve have talked about before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Matter of Opinion

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for the "rabies" challenge on the LiveJournal community **comicdrabbles**.

“You can’t protect me from the shit that everybody says about me,” Bucky snarls. “Today I’m ‘a rabid dog that needs to be put down,’ and that’s one of the nicer things I’ve heard.”

“Who’s ‘everybody’?” Steve asks. “Politicians? Bloggers? Anonymous Buzzfeed commenters? They don’t know you.”

“You think you _do_?”

“Better than a bunch of strangers.” Before Bucky can point out the ways in which the two of them _are_ still strangers, Steve adds, “I know enough to side with the people who will never see you as an animal, or a criminal, or a monster.”

“What do they see instead?” Bucky already knows the answer. “A victim, right?”

“A _survivor_ ,” Steve says, and Bucky suspects that Sam Wilson drilled that distinction into him. “And a brave man. I’ve known that since most of ‘everybody’ was born, and they can all get off my lawn.”

Sometimes Bucky is convinced that the people who call him “rabid” are only repeating what he’s suspected himself, since before he came here to live with the Avengers and pretend they’re one big happy family. His returning memories have been their own kind of sickness, one that usually grows worse before it gets better. This isn’t the first time that he and Steve have had this conversation, and they’ll almost definitely have it again.


End file.
